


Intro to Psych

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Series: Art College [4]
Category: Red Dwarf
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:37:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4317222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arnold still can't get Dave out of his head, but Dave's found a distraction in the form of Kris Kochanski. However, Arnold's own love life isn't bereft of alternative options.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intro to Psych

**Author's Note:**

> Red Dwarf characters belong to Grant Naylor Productions and the BBC. No financial gain is being made off this work of fan fiction.
> 
> * * *

‘What’re you like with engineerin’ type stuff?’

For one agonising moment Arnold was back on board _Red Dwarf_ working his way through yet another unintelligible paragraph about tensile strength, racked with terror about the next day’s exam, but the strong smell of linseed oil brought him back to the present. He put his paintbrush down and looked over at Dave, who was sprawled across his bed with a notepad and pen. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘You’ve seen the posters around for the moon bridges, right?’

Arnold snorted. ‘Who hasn’t? They’re everywhere.’

‘I just wondered if you think it’ll work. From, you know, an art student perspective.’

‘Can you take your feet off my pillow, please? I don’t know. The science department seem pretty convinced that it will, but it’s really down to you lot, isn’t it? You’re the ones who’ll end up building it if it gets approval.’

‘We’ll need your help,’ Dave countered, moving his feet a half-inch to the right. ‘Technical Drawing and all that stuff.’

Arnold pushed his painting aside and reached for a piece of paper. With a few quick, economical movements he sketched the trio of moons that housed the university, then drew a line from Telesto to Tethys and then from Tethys to trailing Calypso. ‘There you go.’

‘Ha ha. You know they want to try to bring the moons closer together to start with.’

‘I don’t know why the shuttle system isn’t sufficient. It’s been working for years.’

‘That doesn’t mean it’s not time for a change.’

Clearly homework time was over. Arnold got up, stretching and wincing at the way his back popped, and then grabbed the edge of his duvet and pulled, tumbling his roommate to the floor. ‘In that case, you could start by staying off my bed, like I’ve asked you a hundred times.’

Dave just grinned up at him from the floor, unperturbed.

Arnold tried not to picture him on display in front of the class and failed.

 

They’d started having lunch together semi-regularly at the cafeteria nearest the shuttle bay that Dave used to get to classes at saTECH on Telesto. Just out of convenience, of course. It certainly wasn’t to go out of their way to spend more time together. But since Dave was in the general vicinity so often, and Calypso was such a small moon and it didn’t _really_ matter where Arnold ate, they often gravitated to the Swanson building.

Arnold had loaded his tray and was scanning the cafeteria for his roommate, only to spot Dave sitting extraordinarily close to a pretty brunette woman. He was laughing at something the woman had just said and she was smiling, a smile that lit up her whole face.

‘Jealousy is an ugly emotion,’ a feminine voice said at Arnold’s side, and he almost dropped his tray.

He recognised _this_ woman, at least; she sat by him in Life Drawing. ‘It’s Nirvanah, isn’t it?’

Nirvanah smiled at him. ‘I had no idea you knew who I was. You’re always so very focused on your work.’ She touched his arm lightly. ‘Why don’t you come and have lunch with me? Your roommate looks busy.’

Arnold looked down at his tray, saw how white his knuckles had gone clenched around its edges, and nodded.

 

Nirvanah chattered lightly as they ate, talking about the combined degree that she was undertaking. To his surprise, Arnold forgot (mostly) about Dave and his mystery woman, listening attentively to Nirvanah. Besides Life Drawing she was doing an array of subjects—Intro to Psych, Chemistry, and Ceramics, which made him think of Dave again. Specifically his hands, fine white clay constantly under his fingernails.

‘Arnold, you’ve gone green again,’ Nirvanah chided him.

‘Oh. Sorry.’

His lunch companion glanced across the busy room to where Dave and his—his woman were sitting. ‘That’s Kris Kochanski. She’s very much into the hard sciences. She takes Chemistry with me but keeps saying how easy it is and how much she prefers Physics.’

‘Dave’s probably planning to introduce her to another hard science.’

Nirvanah gave him a wry look. ‘That’s not a very clever innuendo and I wish I hadn’t set you up for it.’

Her bluntness was oddly refreshing. ‘If that’s not what you were planning to set me up for, what _were_ you trying to set up?’

 

Less than an hour later Nirvanah was straddling him, knees pressed into his sides as she rode him. Arnold’s fingers were spread out over her bare breasts and her skirt was spread out over his hips and he wasn’t even remotely thinking about Dave any more.

At least, not until the door opened.

‘Arn, man, I wanted—oh. _Oh_.’

Arnold was previously unaware that it was possible to _hear_ someone blush.

Nirvanah turned her head. ‘Do you mind, we’re busy,’ she said in the same matter of fact tone that she used in casual conversation.

Dave retreated, muttering something about socks on doorknobs.

Nirvanah returned her attention to Arnold, but the shock of being discovered had rather dampened his libido; she rolled off him, gracefully whisking a sheet up to cover them both. By now the gesture was really putting a sock on the doorknob after the roommate had bolted, but Arnold appreciated it. Just in case Dave had run off to fetch some of his friends to make stupid noises outside the door.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

Nirvanah cuddled in against his side, her hair tickling his nose. ‘It’s all right.’

‘I wasn’t expecting him to come in. I assumed he’d gone off to do a bit of duvet-thumping with that—Kris, did you say her name was?’

‘Yes. She’s very pretty,’ Nirvanah added. ‘I wouldn’t mind thumping her duvet myself.’

Arnold snickered. ‘It sounds so strange coming from you.’

‘Why? Don’t you think women should be allowed to decide who they sleep with?’ Her voice held a challenge, and Arnold found that his libido wasn’t entirely flattened after all.

Still, he couldn’t keep from remembering the expression on Dave’s face just before he’d fled the room. How it wasn’t just surprise, but something else as well. Something that Arnold was reasonably certain was the same emotion that Nirvanah had told him was ugly.

 

‘Is this going to make class awkward?’ Arnold asked when they were both sated, lying mostly naked under the sheet. Nirvanah was still wearing her skirt; he rather liked that they’d been passionate enough to not get all their clothes off before jumping into bed. His own shirt hung open, slipping off his shoulders.

‘Oh no, of course not.’ Nirvanah kissed him, lips grazing softly against the corner of his mouth. ‘No more than it ever is, with you sitting there pretending you’re not infatuated with Dave.’

‘I’m not—’

‘Oh yes you are.’ She sounded like she was on the verge of laughter. ‘I know what it’s like to fancy your roommate.’

‘I thought your roommate was a woman.’

Nirvanah sighed but smiled. ‘Just because you haven’t figured out that it’s all right to be attracted to more than one gender yet, Arnold, doesn’t mean that we’re all walking around repressing our feelings.’

‘I don’t—I’m not—’ He really had to try to finish at least one sentence.

‘It’s all right.’ Nirvanah kissed him again and then rose from the bed, putting her bra back on with considerably more grace than he’d pulled it off her with. ‘We can talk about it another time.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ Arnold said.

‘We can talk in class about how much time you spend staring instead of drawing.’ She was wriggling into her shirt now.

‘Aren’t you going to stay?’

Nirvanah gave him an odd look. ‘I’ve Chemistry to go to.’

‘Isn’t this enough chemistry for you?’

‘Note to self, don’t ever give Arnold room to make puns.’ She shimmied into her knickers and slipped her sandals on before picking up her bag and leaning down to kiss him one more time. ‘This was nice. We should do it again sometime.’

And then she was gone.

Arnold took a few minutes to gather his thoughts, and found that they had scattered so far and wide that a few minutes wouldn’t be enough. He got up and showered, remade the bed—his duvet was thoroughly rumpled—and then sat at its head and proceeded to get very, very drunk. Dave was going to kill him when he came back and found out that Arnold had emptied their small fridge of lager, but Arnold wasn’t sure how else to react to what had just happened.

Perhaps he should sit in on one of Nirvanah’s Psychology classes. Maybe then he’d understand what on Io she had been thinking.

His thoughts refused to be gathered, eluding him further the more that he drank. But maybe that was for the best.

 

Dark. The room was dark and his mouth was sour and his throat hurt.

‘Silly bugger,’ Dave’s warm voice murmured out of the darkness. There were tiles and it was cold. His bed had been stolen and replaced by a toilet.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t apologise to me, apologise to your duvet. You’re going to have to send it off-moon to be dry-cleaned.’

‘I’ll sleep in the bath.’

‘You’ll sleep with me.’

Arnold’s brain tried to tell him urgently why that was a terribly loaded turn of phrase, but then Dave pressed a cup to his lips and water faintly tinged with orange flavouring was in his mouth and he rinsed and spat.

‘Drink some, it’ll help with your hangover.’

The tiny bathroom was still dark, but Dave’s arm around his shoulders steadied him, and Arnold managed to brush his teeth. The mint was awful on top of the orange but still better than recycled lager.

‘I don’t understand women,’ he informed his roommate.

‘Nobody understands women. Women don’t understand women. Come on. You need sleep.’ Dave guided him through the dark. Arnold could smell where he’d been sick and his stomach did a slow roll.

‘I’m sorry about your beer.’

‘So’s your duvet. Lie down. There you go.’ Dave went away and so did the sick-smell. The bathroom door closed. Arnold’s duvet was sleeping in the bath. This struck him as profoundly hilarious.

‘Stop giggling, you big smeghead.’ Dave’s arm tucked around his shoulders again, pulling him in close and warm, and Arnold fell back into the dark with a long sigh.


End file.
